The invention relates to the art of surgical materials to be used for healing wounds, more particularly to a sterile collagen product and to its preparation from animal collagen.
As is known, collagen products prepared from animal tissues are used as wound coverings or adhesives. British Pat. No. 1,147,072 relates to a wound covering consisting of a tanned collagen sponge and collagen covering film applied to one side of the sponge. South African Pat. No. 6,705,871 relates to a collagen product which consists of microcrystalline colloidal collagen and which is to be used as a mixing component together with other active substances in cosmetic and pharmaceutical preparations. A further commercially available collagen product consists of a light flocculent powder which, though haemostatically active, is difficult to apply in depth into a wound and which has the disadvantage of being washed away by strong diffuse bleedings.
In order to obtain optimum results in wound healing by means of collagen, a collagen product would have to be available which should meet all the requirements specified hereinafter:
1. it should have a high haemostatic activity; PA1 2. it should have a high absorption capacity for body fluids; PA1 3. it should promote the regeneration of tissues, especially of bone tissues; PA1 4. it should have a high resorbability; PA1 5. it should have as low an antigenic activity as possible; and PA1 6. it should have optimum mechanical properties so as to make it suitable for the application to or the introduction into wounds or into bone cavities.
The prior art collagen products either described in the literature or available on the market, while meeting one or a restricted number of the requirements set forth above, do not meet all of them at the same time.